Sunday, June 29, 2008

Taliban take over?

Army and the Taliban takeover

President Pervez Musharraf's meeting with COAS Gen Ashfaq Kayani on Friday hinted at how the government is positioning itself on the question of the threatened takeover of the NWFP by the Taliban. The presidential statement issued publicly said that "religious extremism and terrorist violence must be combated with full force and all resources available". However, to this obviously unexceptionable statement, a statement from the COAS explained that "I will act on the decision of the government". Gen Kayani did not admit that a go-ahead had been given to him by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, making him the "principal" with powers to decide action in the areas threatened by Taliban violence.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman keeps saying the army is ready for action against the mounting threat in the NWFP, but it seems that the army is only "ready" for a specific order from the civilian government to proceed. But that doesn't seem to be coming. Even as the warlords from outside Peshawar gradually take over the city through their armed warriors, the ANP government continues to hug the peace deals that already lie in tatters in Swat. And the killing of two persons closely related to the PPP leaders of Swat is sending an ominous political message to the coalition in Peshawar.

The ANP insists it is making headway with the killers, but has asked the frontier constabulary to guard its police from being annihilated by the warlords who increasingly rule the administered districts of the province. If it doesn't take a clear line on what it is going to do about the killing of innocent people under its jurisdiction, it will start looking as ambiguous as the political parties in Balochistan, shunning violence but feeling soft towards Baloch separatism.

The federal government has turned its face away from the trouble in the Tribal Areas and the NWFP by approaching the United Nations for an inquiry into the death of the PPP leader Ms Benazir Bhutto "because another state is involved in the assassination". Even the TV personality, the fiery Zaid Zaman, who lambastes the US and sees all kinds of American and Jewish conspiracies behind political events, was blunt in his assertion that Baitullah Mehsud had ordered her assassination.

We have said eariler, the new government won't act till it has felt enough PAIN.

Don't know if that pain level has been reached yet?

G

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Munich: Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan's northwest frontier region pose a direct threat to the Islamabad government, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned in Munich on Sunday.

The presence of the Islamic extremists in the tribal region is not just "a nuisance" to Pakistan, but "is potentially a threat to their government," Gates told an international security conference in this southern German city.